1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to comminution machines such as chippers and shredders that are commonly used for the comminution of leaves, branches and other such material. More particularly, the present invention relates to comminution devices mounted upon a truck, wherein the comminuted materials are automatically deposited within the bed of the truck.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art is replete with various comminution machines specifically designed to chip or shred plant material such as leaves, branches, grass cuttings and the like. Many of the larger comminution machines are built upon a trailer, thereby allowing the comminution machine to be towed by a truck. Traditional commercial comminution machines, such as those used by tree service companies and landscapers, contain cutting blades positioned at ground level or at the low level of the trailer. As branches and leaves are passed through the cutting blades, the comminuted debris is expelled through an exit shoot. Trailer supported commercial comminution machines are commonly towed behind a dump truck, wherein the exit shoot of the comminution machine is directed into the bed of the truck. Using this configuration, material can be fed through the comminution machine until the dump truck is full. At this point, the comminution machine must be detached from the dump truck so that the dump truck is free to dump its load of comminuted debris.
The problem associated with this typical prior art scenario is that trailer based commercial comminution machines are large, bulky and heavy. This makes the comminution machine very difficult to manually maneuver. Consequently, it takes a great deal of time and labor to remove and reattach the comminution machine trailer from and to the dump truck. Furthermore, the load bed of the dump truck fills quickly with the loosely packed comminuted debris. As a result, the comminution machine trailer must often be removed from the dump truck as it becomes full, dumps its load and returns. The labor and time wasted removing and reattaching the comminution machine trailer is significant, greatly reducing the productivity of the employees of the tree service or landscaper.
In the prior art, attempts have been made to eliminate the need to remove and reattach a comminution machine from a tow vehicle by designing the comminution machine directly into the structure of a vehicle. Such prior art is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,003 to Johnson, entitled MATERIALS PROCESSING UNIT; U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,539 to Deem, entitled TRUCK-MOUNTED PALLET CHIPPER and U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,264 to Lundquist, entitled CONVEYING AND PROCESSING APPARATUS FOR VEHICLE MOUNTED SIZE REDUCTION EQUIPMENT. These prior art references position comminution machinery between the passenger cab of the vehicle and the dump bed at the rear of the vehicle. As a result, the vehicles are free to dump their loads without effecting the comminution machinery. The prior art exemplified by the three above referenced patents, all show large dedicated vehicles that have to be custom built. As a result, such custom vehicles are extremely expensive and would only be in the budget of a large municipality and not a small tree service or landscaping organization.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a comminution device that can be added to an existing dump truck vehicle in a low cost manner, wherein the comminution device deposits comminuted debris directly into the bed of the dump truck in a manner that does not effect the ability of the dump truck to dump its load.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a comminution device that is supported by a dump truck and can be selectively repositioned to various points on the dump truck, thereby enabling comminuted debris to be loaded into the dump truck in an even and controlled manner.